day after the new year I heard my father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat
together at the breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened
envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the outstretched palm of the
other one. He had always laughed at what he called my cock-and-bull story
about the colonel, but he looked very scared and puzzled now that the same
thing had come upon himself.
“‘Why, what on earth does this mean, John?’ he stammered.
“My heart had turned to lead. ‘It is K. K. K.,’ said I.
“He looked inside the envelope. ‘So it is,’ he cried. ‘Here are the very letters.
But what is this written above them?’
“‘Put the papers on the sundial,’ I read, peeping over his shoulder.
“‘What papers? What sundial?’ he asked.
“‘The sundial in the garden. There is no other,’ said I; ‘but the papers must be
those that are destroyed.’
“‘Pooh!’ said he, gripping hard at his courage. ‘We are in a civilised land
here, and we can’t have tomfoolery of this kind. Where does the thing come
from?’
“‘From Dundee,’ I answered, glancing at the postmark.
“‘Some preposterous practical joke,’ said he. ‘What have I to do with sundials
and papers? I shall take no notice of such nonsense.’
“‘I should certainly speak to the police,’ I said.
“‘And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.’
“‘Then let me do so?’
“‘No, I forbid you. I won’t have a fuss made about such nonsense.’
“It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate man. I went
about, however, with a heart which was full of forebodings.
“On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went from home to
visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is in command of one of the forts
upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad that he should go, for it seemed to me that he
was farther from danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was
in error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram from the
major, imploring me to come at once. My father had fallen over one of the deep
chalk-pits which abound in the neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a
shattered skull. I hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever
recovered his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from Fareham